News & Community
Condo Community Election Campaign Getting Underway
By Melody Jameson melody@observernews.net
Jan 11, 2007, 21:08

KINGS POINT – With two months to go before the 2007 election, campaign preparations now are underway here.

Up for grabs are four seats on the Kings Point Federation board of directors as the terms of those board members come to a close.

The March 16 balloting will be the second since a reform coalition titled “Residents for Better Government” organized within the community about a year ago and successfully campaigned for election of a slate of five candidates.  Those five presently are half way through their two-year terms.

The current two-year terms of four other members of the nine-person board, however, are ending, making their seats available to all eligible candidates, whether backed by the coalition or campaigning alone.

The four board directors whose terms are concluding are: Faye Bradford, Dick McCormick, Paul Monnette and Wayne Musholt.  Musholt also is the current board president.  

At presstime, it was not known if any of those directors eligible to run for re-election actually plan to do so.

The four seats which are opening represent Districts III, IV, V and VI. These districts include  42 condominium associations in the neighborhoods of Gloucester, Highgate, Idlewood, Princeton, Quail Pass, Lancaster, Radison, Southhampton, Tremont, Worthington, Yorkshire, Manchester and Nantucket.   

Coalition campaigners now are engaged in laying the groundwork for their next election undertaking, according to Newton Fink, spokesperson for “Residents for Better Government.”   These efforts include talking with residents of the four districts who are interested in running for board seats as representatives of their districts, Fink added.

The one requirement for eligibility to run is residency in the district to be represented, Fink noted.  Current service as president of an association does not prohibit that individual running for a board seat, he said.

In addition, Fink said the group looks for “a good skill set to make a good board member. We’re looking for people who are interested in being part of the governing establishment here.”  

This year, just as during last year’s campaign, the “Residents for Better Government” coalition will seek to field and support its slate of four candidates for the open seats, Fink asserted. And their 2007 campaign will resemble the last one, he indicated, with such endeavors on behalf of their slate as informational mailings to the electorate and open forums conducted to introduce their candidates to the community at large.

On the other hand, any resident residing in and interested in representing one of the districts through a board seat but not part of the coalition’s slate also may run for the position, said Karen Jean Renzi, board secretary and a member of the Standing Elections Committee.

A non-coalition candidate would be free to campaign on an individual basis whenever, wherever and however he or she wished, Fink explained.  For that candidate, Renzi added, the process would begin with completion of a candidacy application for Sterling Management, the community’s employed management firm.

The 2007 election also will be the first conducted since a re-apportionment of condo associations within the community’s districts was completed by the present board last fall.   At that time, the board approved modification of the former seven single-district seats and two at-large seats pattern to a simple nine single-district seat arrangement.

In so doing, the board also re-assigned some associations within some districts to more evenly balance the districts and “in order to make it fair for everyone living in Kings Point,” Renzi pointed out.    This re-apportionment “equalizes as much as humanly possible the number of units within the districts,” she added, thereby better balancing the vote weight from each district.  

Presidents of the various associations within the four districts electing directors this year will cast their ballots on Friday, March 16.   

Fink can be reached by telephone at 633-0885 or via e-mail at newtonfink@hotmail.com.

Successful candidates will begin their new terms as board members on April 1.


© Copyright 2006 by The Observer News Publications and M&M Printing